Editorial: No action, but getting closer

Our view: Families and businesses have seen enough of the problems in downtown Chico, and they let the City Council hear it.

We've been wondering for months when Chico would hit the tipping point where a recalcitrant City Council is forced to do something by fed-up citizens. Maybe we saw it Tuesday. Maybe.

Residents who overflowed the City Council Chambers made it crystal clear they were tired of hearing talk, tired of meetings. They wanted action.

And in a move that surprised us, the council promised action. They didn't really deliver that, but at least moved up their timetable for doing something. Only in the august City Council Chambers can no action be seen as a sign of progress, but it was.

We refuse to heap praise on the council for their prescience. Councilors should have done something a long time ago. Instead, residents deserve kudos for showing up in force and demanding their elected officials solve the problem of transients taking over downtown. Nothing would have happened without that not-so-subtle shove from citizens.

Even councilors who didn't support a so-called sit-lie ordinance just two months ago suddenly seemed willing to listen.

The angry citizens, demanding accountability, convinced them. As wise politicians like to say, "I wasn't going to stand in front of that train."

Mayor Scott Gruendl outlined before the meeting what he thought would happen — a couple of hours with sticky notes, leading to some future measures. He asked people to "be patient with us and participate in this interesting process that we've created." Gruendl said he wanted a draft ordinance in December or January, with final action in February or March.

Citizens were having none of that and the council finally agreed to bring back solutions at its next meeting just two weeks later. In governmental terms, that's a nanosecond.

The council and city staff suddenly realized they probably didn't even need new laws — they could just enforce existing laws, particularly on sleeping in city parks and loitering. Police have rarely done that because they frequently felt nothing would come of it, and they were handcuffed by lenient attitudes toward poorly behaved transients from some councilors.

Most citizens agreed the Police Department needs to be fully staffed. The police force isn't a force. It's easy to demand more staffing, but what are the trade-offs? The city is broke, and a lot of residents are complaining about filthy parks, downed limbs that don't get picked up, closed fire stations, unfilled potholes and so forth. If the department hires officers, which department gets cut?

Police Chief Kirk Trostle said he's trying to figure out a way to increase the department's presence downtown, at least temporarily, using existing staff. As you can see on today's Enterprise-Record front page, help is coming from elsewhere, too.

Chico perhaps has found the tipping point. It's long overdue. But we urge citizens to keep up the pressure. Nothing has been done yet.